First shot of animation (defined narrowly): Floral pattern whirls around the cast and wipes them into the china bowl.

Like Winnie the Pooh, here’s a contemporary film committed to the time period it draws from. It starts with an overture for crying out loud. There’s stage choreography, and no great effort is made for the studio sets to look like actual outdoor locations.

Even the china bowl sequence emulates the heavy, scratchy line of the xerox process era that Mary Poppins was part of. The props and costumes use the same look to make a sort of gradient of reality and enhance the integration. It works way better than the Jolly Holliday in the original.

The whimsy is exactly right, and Emily Blunt is practically perfect. The songs are what don’t quite measure up. Each of them has a clear, and repeated, moral for the children. Mary Poppins is not didactic.

Michael is a painter who no longer values imagination, which might explain why he can’t sell any paintings.